Police hands tied as Lynn visits United States
Solicitor told officers he was returning to Lisbon
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Fugitive solicitor Michael Lynn was stopped by immigration officers in the United States at the weekend -- but they did not have the power to arrest him.
And he cannot be arrested outside Ireland -- despite a court order, the Irish Independent has learned.
The officers were acting on a worldwide alert issued by the gardai after Lynn disappeared here last month.
Border immigration control officers spotted Lynn at Newark Airport in New Jersey on Friday last as he stepped off a flight from Lisbon.
His description had been circulated by the gardai through Interpol to all police forces and other security agencies.
Officers interviewed Lynn, who told them he was on a three-day visit to the US and intended to return to Lisbon on Sunday.
However, the officers had no power to detain the solicitor as an order issued by a High Court judge here was not enforceable outside this jurisdiction.
Yesterday High Court president Mr Justice Richard Johnson queried what steps had been taken by gardai to find Lynn.
He said it had been several weeks since he had issued the order for his arrest and the gardai should be in a position to let him know the up- to-date position of their inquiries.
It is expected the judge will be given a detailed breakdown of garda activities this morning.
As the order issued by Mr Justice Johnson was from a civil court, it could not be enforced outside the State and other police forces did not have the legal power to hold Lynn.
As a result, gardai issued an appeal through Interpol to other agencies, asking them to help track down Lynn's whereabouts, and if he was spotted, to establish his recent movements.
Last night gardai were in contact with police and other agencies in Lisbon and Newark to determine if he had returned to Portugal on Sunday night.
Lynn can be arrested in another jurisdiction in connection with an alleged criminal offence here only if a substantial body of evidence has been built up against him.
At the moment there are no complaints from the banks that he has committed a crime.
Even if a complaint has been made, his extradition cannot be sought unless he is to be charged with a specific crime.
He cannot be extradited solely to face questioning about an alleged offence.
Yesterday Mr Justice Johnson challenged the Law Society and gardai on their efforts to locate the missing solicitor.
Judge Johnson said that as it had been a number of weeks since he issued a bench warrant for Lynn's arrest, the gardai should be in a position to let him know what the situation was and international police should be drafted in to locate Lynn, who is missing with mortgage debts of over €80m.
"If it means getting the international police involved, then so be it," said the judge, after the Mayo-born lawyer failed to turn up yet again for questioning by the Law Society.
Lynn, who had previously been last seen in public on December 10, 2007 at the London Offices of Merriman White -- which employed convicted fraudster Elio Malocco as its practice manager -- has also been referred by the Law Society to the Solicitor's Disciplinary Tribunal.
The referral of Lynn's alleged misconduct to the SDT is the first in a series of steps to have the aspiring property developer, who is facing arrest on foot of a court order, struck off the solicitors' roll.
Banks pursuing the solicitor fear he may have laundered and liquidated assets in foreign countries and misappropriated the proceeds of loans they issued to Lynn in good faith.
It is feared that Lynn, who left Ireland as part of a "well -planned exit" according to the Dublin Sheriff's office, may have sold property at knockdown prices in Portugal and Bulgaria and emptied bank accounts in Luxembourg, Portugal and Bulgaria in recent months.
Lynn's Irish bank accounts are frozen, but his international finances are beyond the reach of the Irish courts.
Yesterday, yet another bank secured a €11m court order against Lynn, whose solicitor's practising certificate has now been suspended after AIG, the insurance company, withdrew insurance cover for Lynn's practice just before Christmas.
- Tom Brady and Dearbhail McDonald
